Seeking Opportunity: Mobility and Transmission of Innovation in the Chalcolithic
Seeking Opportunity: Mobility and Transmission of Innovation in the Chalcolithic

Summary/Abstract: This paper integrates recent data about health status, nutrition, and autosomal DNA to sketch a narrative of mobility linked to the spread of metallurgical competency in the Chalcolithic. The outlook suggested is that mobility may have been tied to the pursuit and transmission of skills. The mobility of a subgroup affiliated with Bodrogkeresztúr Culture could present an early case of migration of the skilled and be placed in the context of early developments of specialization. The pursuit of skills might also explain the phenomenon of the disintegration of tell settlements of the Great Hungarian Plain in relation to the attraction of the most active metallurgical network of the time, which was centered on the Lower Danube Valley.

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